Influence of Modifications Related to Safe Operating Area Demands on Operation of a Specialized Medium/High-Voltage Unity-Gain Buffer

This paper presents safety-related modifications to the improved high-voltage unity-gain buffer and their impact on the operation quality of this circuit. The analyzed buffer architecture combines the virtues of source and gate followers. It provides high input impedance to the gate follower and voltage gain precision to the source follower while retaining a very simple structure and an extremely short signal path. These properties enable its various applications, e.g., as an interconnection of voltage and current mode function blocks in signal paths of medium- and high-voltage integrated circuits. The scrutinized buffer consists of MOS devices with different maximum interterminal voltages, which results in the necessity of enhancing its architecture with a set of safety devices to ensure non-destructive power-up, normal operation, and power-down phases of the buffer operation. The consequences of the implemented safety changes vs. the influence of the physical implementation process on the buffer operation capabilities are presented in comparison to its ancestral source and gate followers. The results show that the analyzed buffer retains the best signal processing quality among the compared buffer structures after the complete physical implementation process.

FPGA Implementation of IEC-61131-3-Based Hardware Aided Counters for PLC

The article discusses counters defined in the IEC 61131-3 standard. The possible implementations of standard counters function blocks in FPGAs are presented. First, counters are implemented as classical hardware-based modules. Second, counters are designed as the FPGA built-in memory blocks with a single common executing unit. These solutions are compared to each other and compared with counters realized in commercially available PLCs like Siemens SIMATIC S7 controllers. The structure of integrated hardware–software CPU with counters is presented. The paper presents how the designer can take advantage of the specific features of the FPGA devices to optimize both the utilization of resources and speed of realization of the particular blocks. Experimental results prove the high efficiency of the proposed solutions.

Design and Implementation of Intelligent Automated Production-Line Control System

Owing to the different consumption habits of people, the market has rapidly changed, and customized demands have increased in recent years. This issue has led to the need for manufacturing industry to improve their production-process automation system control to become faster and more flexible. An intelligent automated production-line control system (IAPLCS) is proposed in this study, in which a graphic control system (GCS) is designed to integrate equipment communications in automated production. This system runs complex packaged programs for function blocks, which enable users to easily build function blocks in GCS. Users can plan the control flow of the system to control the machine operation. Not only is a web interface set in the IAPLCS, which makes it easier for users to operate and monitor, but also Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors can be added for data collection and analysis based on the characteristics of the production line and equipment. Finally, the proposed control system was implemented in an actual production line to verify its feasibility.

Watertight Door Control System on A Ship using Profinet IO

The paper is to deal with the analysis of Profinet IO networks based on the design of a watertight door control system on a passenger ship. The analysis was based on modernization of existing watertight door system installed on a ship. The currency system on ship it use old PLC like S7-200, receive and send date only serial communication. In laboratory on University conditions the same network using two controls company Siemens PLC S7-1214 DC/DC/DC and simulated HMI write on WinCC was recreated and modified with Profinet IO standard. The authors propose a novel watertight door control system using two controllers and a touch panel HMI. The control algorithms have been written in LAD language with use norm SOLAS about list alarm. Program it was write in TIA Portal with use Function blocks (FB) with Block Date (DB) and Function (FC). When designing the laboratory bench, the authors based their assumptions on the actual solutions used on the Balmoral passenger ship. Tests were carried out on parameters related to dimensions, including the length of cables between communication modules of controllers, giving in results the actual lengths of cables in the current system and the one proposed in this work. Then, the possibility of data exchange between the two controllers and the visualization of the simulated KTP 1200 panel was examined. The operation of the software was verified, including its optimization for the correct operation of the entire system. The final part of the paper, after verifying the performance of the system in three steps, an analysis of the current system and the novel solution based on Profinet IO network is given.

The zinc cluster transcription factor Rha1 is a positive filamentation regulator in Candida albicans

Zinc cluster transcription factors are essential fungal regulators of gene expression. In the pathogen Candida albicans, the gene orf19.1604 encodes a zinc cluster transcription factor regulating filament development. Hyperactivation of orf19.1604, which we have named RHA1 for Regulator of Hyphal Activity, generates wrinkled colony morphology under non-hyphal growth conditions, triggers filament formation, invasiveness, and enhanced biofilm formation and causes reduced virulence in the mouse model of systemic infection. The strain expressing activated Rha1 shows up-regulation of genes required for filamentation and cell-wall-adhesion-related proteins. Increased expression is also seen for the hyphal-inducing transcription factors Brg1 and Ume6, while the hyphal repressor Nrg1 is downregulated. Inactivation of RHA1 reduces filamentation under a variety of filament-inducing conditions. In contrast to the partial effect of either single mutant, the double rha1 ume6 mutant strain is highly defective in both serum- and Spider-medium-stimulated hyphal development. While the loss of Brg1 function blocks serum-stimulated hyphal development, this block can be significantly bypassed by Rha1 hyperactivity, and the combination of Rha1 hyperactivity and serum addition can generate significant polarization even in brg1 ume6 double mutants. Thus, in response to external signals, Rha1 functions with other morphogenesis regulators including Brg1 and Ume6, to mediate filamentation.

Development of security systems using DNN and i & x-vector classifiers

The widespread use of biometric systems entails increased interest from cybercriminals aimed at developing attacks to crack them. Thus, the development of biometric identification systems must be carried out taking into account protection against these attacks. The development of new methods and algorithms for identification based on the presentation of randomly generated key features from the biometric base of user standards will help to minimize the disadvantages of the above methods of biometric identification of users. We present an implementation of a security system based on voice identification as an access control key and a verification algorithm developed using MATLAB function blocks that can authenticate a person's identity by his or her voice. Our research has shown an accuracy of 90 % for this user identification system for individual voice characteristics. It has been experimentally proven that traditional MFCCs using DNN and i and x-vector classifiers can achieve good results. The paper considers and analyzes the most well-known approaches from the literature to the problem of user identification by voice: dynamic programming methods, vector quantization, mixtures of Gaussian processes, hidden Markov model. The developed software package for biometric identification of users by voice and the method of forming the user's voice standards implemented in the complex allows reducing the number of errors in identifying users of information systems by voice by an average of 1.5 times. Our proposed system better defines voice recognition in terms of accuracy, security and complexity. The application of the results obtained will improve the security of the identification process in information systems from various attacks.

REW-ISA V2: A Biclustering Method Fusing Homologous Information for Analyzing and Mining Epi-Transcriptome Data

Background: Previous studies have shown that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is related to many life processes and physiological and pathological phenomena. However, the specific regulatory mechanism of m6A sites at the systematic level is not clear. Therefore, mining the RNA co-methylation patterns in the epi-transcriptome data is expected to explain the specific regulation mechanism of m6A.Methods: Considering that the epi-transcriptome data contains homologous information (the genes corresponding to the m6A sites and the cell lines corresponding to the experimental conditions), rational use of this information will help reveal the regulatory mechanism of m6A. Therefore, based on the RNA expression weighted iterative signature algorithm (REW-ISA), we have fused homologous information and developed the REW-ISA V2 algorithm.Results: Then, REW-ISA V2 was applied in the MERIP-seq data to find potential local function blocks (LFBs), where sites are hyper-methylated simultaneously across the specific conditions. Finally, REW-ISA V2 obtained fifteen LFBs. Compared with the most advanced biclustering algorithm, the LFBs obtained by REW-ISA V2 have more significant biological significance. Further biological analysis showed that these LFBs were highly correlated with some signal pathways and m6A methyltransferase.Conclusion: REW-ISA V2 fuses homologous information to mine co-methylation patterns in the epi-transcriptome data, in which sites are co-methylated under specific conditions.

Function Block-Based Multimodal Control for Symbiotic Human–Robot Collaborative Assembly

In human–robot collaborative assembly, robots are often required to dynamically change their preplanned tasks to collaborate with human operators in close proximity. One essential requirement of such an environment is enhanced flexibility and adaptability, as well as reduced effort on the conventional (re)programming of robots, especially for complex assembly tasks. However, the robots used today are controlled by rigid native codes that cannot support efficient human–robot collaboration. To solve such challenges, this article presents a novel function block-enabled multimodal control approach for symbiotic human–robot collaborative assembly. Within the context, event-driven function blocks as reusable functional modules embedded with smart algorithms are used for the encapsulation of assembly feature-based tasks/processes and control commands that are transferred to the controller of robots for execution. Then, multimodal control commands in the form of sensorless haptics, gestures, and voices serve as the inputs of the function blocks to trigger task execution and human-centered robot control within a safe human–robot collaborative environment. Finally, the performed processes of the method are experimentally validated by a case study in an assembly work cell on assisting the operator during the collaborative assembly. This unique combination facilitates programming-free robot control and the implementation of the multimodal symbiotic human–robot collaborative assembly with the enhanced adaptability and flexibility.